A group of visual art students at J.P. Stevens High School in Edison won $50,000 for their sneaker designs.
EDISON -- Nine visual art students from John P. Stevens High School learned how much four pairs of sneakers were worth last month when they won the Vans Custom Culture national high school design competition -- $50,000.
The money is earmarked for the school's art education program to inspire high school students to embrace creativity through art and design, according to the sneaker manufacturer.
Paolello said 3,000 schools nationwide entered the contest this year.
Using a theme familiar and dear to the heart of residents throughout the state -- diners -- they had to provide designs for blank Vans shoes using four categories -- action sports, arts, music and local flavor, according to their teacher, Alison Paolello.
They even worked through spring break so they could submit their designs on time to be considered, according to Paolello.
When their designs got them into the top 50, they were thrilled.
"We had to get people to vote for us online so we could win our region," Paolello said. "The girls got to work and we won our region and won $4,000 which also guaranteed us a trip to California."
The students felt if they didn't win the national competition, they wouldn't have been disappointed after winning the region and the trip to California.
"The competition was pretty tough,." said Jessica Xu, 17. "If we didn't win, we wouldn't feel bad because they'd have deserved it. But I thought we had a pretty good shot."
Their designs included a grill with hamburgers, french fries, ice cream, sneakers painted to look like the outside of diners with neon signs and with LED lights.
Elizabeth Lee, 18, who had the idea to use the diner theme, said the group was "really surprised" that they were the winners.
"We were really hoping for it," Lee said. "There were two schools left. They named the runner up and it wasn't us. Then we freaked out because we knew we won!"
She said she thought of the diner because "its more personal to our home town and to New Jersey."
All of the girls in the class who won are seniors so the victory is even more special to them, according to Paolello.
"We're all very excited," she said.
Sue Epstein may be reached at sepstein@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @susan_epstein. Find NJ.com on Facebook.